By Miguel T. Tonnis, December 1, 2024

Ridgecrest California

“I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

In the final presidential debate of 1980, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan delivered that epic, one-line knockout blow to Walter Mondale and went on to win an unprecedented electoral landslide, carrying 49 of the 50 states.

“I’m aware that I’m probably going to get a lot of votes from people who just absolutely despise him, but I want you to vote for me for a lot more reasons than that” – Travis W. Endicott October 1, 2024, Mayoral Candidates Forum

Wow! Touché Dr. Travis W. Endicott! The former political science professor cancelled the velocity of Mayor Eric Bruen’s heavy mass, and his “momentum“ in one Reagan-esque knockout blow.

Endicott was very kind and respectful throughout the Mayoral Candidate’s Forum, which was sponsored by the IWV Economic Development Corporation, the Ridgecrest Area Association of Realtors and the Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce. The well attended forum was held at City Hall on October 1^st.

He didn’t need a video promotion company or a Facebook account to make his case. He didn’t practice handwaving or regurgitating endless happy talking points, the people who voted for him weren’t fooled by Bread and Circuses Bruen and his band of Merry Cronies, and finally, he didn’t need an armored ATM van running all over town wasting gas and pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.

Bruen was equally respectful to Endicott, however Bruen pleaded his case with deceptive BS worthy of a used car salesman, and he whined yet again about “keyboard warriors” and the criticisms he reads on Facebook. We think that Bruen made a huge mistake believing that Facebook videos and “controlling the dialog” on Facebook was his ticket to political glory when it only served to illustrate his clownish “quirky personality” and abrasiveness.

The choice between two candidates who are polar opposites couldn’t have been easier for those that pay attention to Ridgecrest’s politics. There were stark differences on what the two candidates believe are the most important issues in the Indian Wells Valley.

We’ve watched Eric Bruen, also known as City Manager Ron Strand’s “lightning rod”, since day one. It was easy to draw a conclusion after his first meeting as Mayor. It’s true, he’s a jerk, and it just got worse from there. For those who might be confused, sad and perplexed about Eric’s loss, we are thrilled to offer our opinion why voters fired the despised Facebook influencer and showman from Hollywood.

Bruen had all the advantages, the name recognition, and the endorsements from all of Bakersfield’s power brokers, including the embattled and bitter former Congressman Kevin McCarthy, who quit on his Kern County constituents – and the country – after getting booted as House Speaker by his Republican colleagues for repeatedly breaking his promises and lying. Now he’s starting something he calls a think tank, which we know is a lobbying and influence peddling operation. McCarthy leaves Congress a sore loser. Good riddance.

McCarthy’s underling, former State Assemblyman Vince Fong, also endorsed Bruen before easily winning McCarthy’s vacant seat, and he’s shown some willingness to engage in the water wars caused by SGMA, California’s 2014 law called the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. We think Fong may have been involved with McCarthy during SGMA’s creation and the flawed assertion of the Doctrine of federal reserve water rights by the Navy and would love to know who inserted paragraph 10720.3 into SGMA. If anybody knows, please contact us.

Finally, Bruen was endorsed by Kern County Supervisor Philip Peters, who’s the County’s lead representative on the board of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. Peters is a wet noodle and front man for Phil Hall, the villainous Kern County attorney for the VERY stinky “Authority”. (Hi Phil, love your ties, but we hate SGMA and the GA.)

Endicott said repeatedly “I’m here to help”, while addressing the top issues confronting Ridgecrest, including water and health care. He described his primary goal as service to his community, it’s something he’s done all his life, and he promises to conduct meetings so the people can “talk to each other” on the issues. (Check out his website. It’s much better than Bruen’s Facebook page!)

Our veterans and our community need a realistic vision for the future of Ridgecrest, and Endicott said he will focus on both the water issues and the hospital. He’s not obsessed with growth, annexation or planting a truck stop and a $100 million overpass on Highway 395.

The news that McCarthy quit was very bad news for the Kern GOP and the DOD. Cities that rely on defense spending as their primary drivers for growth will likely be disappointed under a Trump administration.

The good news? RINO’s have been isolated and are getting unelected, and our $900 billion per year MIC is about to meet the DOGE. Does anybody working at China Lake think there’s any justification for a RIF after a wild $4 billion construction spending spree when we have a trillion-dollar annual interest payment on our $36 TRILLION national debt? Don’t you hate all these acronyms? We studied NPV in college and this debt thing equates to chickens coming home to have their gooses cooked…

Endicott doesn’t come off as big-spending fat cat RINO (like Bruen), a radical Democrat or a Woke crazy person looking for a tampon while trying to recruit sailors. He seems like a normal guy who grew up on a farm in Indiana and he worked hard to get where he is. What can we say about Bruen? Not much. He hides his background but his appetite for fast food hamburger joints is self evident.

And Kevin was a friend to China Lake and the DOD. Today, McCarthy is gone and likely won’t be missed by the many homeless in his district, especially those who are also veterans. Travis is on to something, and he recognizes that we could use some help and some good news, not a bunch of Bruen’s happy talk about pools, fantasy fairs and wine charged street parties for adults he treats like children.

Everything that drives Bruen’s life and no-compromise ambition centers around money, growth and annexation. He’s blind to matters of right and wrong. These matters require good judgement, discernment, and common sense. A minimal understanding of the Constitution and real estate law would also be helpful. We bet Travis knows a thing or two about right and wrong and our Constitutional Republic.

Bruen’s intentionally ignorant on the water issue, gives it a bit of lip service, and he’s been very wrong on everything else that matters, including his embrace of mandatory EV’s and the climate change scam.

What’s absolutely despicable about Bruen is his stance on the Covid mandates dictated by Gruesom Newsom. In his most egregious demonstration of wrongthink, Bruen, while sitting on the Board of Directors of the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, proclaimed that the unvaccinated had “a choice to go someplace else” if they didn’t want to take the untested mRNA jab before entering the hospital to see a doctor! By 2022, the Ridgecrest Police Department was in shambles and former Police Chief Jed McLaughlin retired with a medical condition in 2023:

“I intend to be controversial and control the dialog”– Newly elected Mayor Eric Bruen at his first city council meeting. January 7, 2020.

“It’s about who you trust to lead our city. I am here to help. I’m not here to impose my views.” – Mayor-elect Travis W. Endcott at the Mayoral Candidates Forum, October 1, 2024.

When CEO-Mayor Bruen was first elected, he made it clear he intended to run the City with a my way or the highway managerial style. There are many good reasons why the voters came to despise Bruen after only four years in office, and one is he asked for it.

As for Mayor-elect Endicott, we’re pretty sure he’ll prefer being called Travis and he’ll listen to all the people in the valley as well as the unelected “stakeholders” in the GA and his fellow council members. Bruen publicly talks down to anyone who might disagree with him.

“Water will continue to be our biggest issue, and without that, we have nothing. To me, the hospital, and the access to care for veterans and everyone else, is Number One-B.” – Travis W. Endicott

Bruen couldn’t be bothered to study the water issue during his four years as Mayor, passing the “slings and arrows” which were hurled by many residents and this writer at Councilman Scott Hayman.

Bruen had it all going his way, effectively telling the Indian Wells Valley Water District and their loyal rate-paying customers to take the highway. Some have already left and more will do so. Ridgecrest will most certainly gain nothing or grow anything if the Groundwater Authority isn’t restructured with a new and improved Groundwater Sustainability Plan based on the best science available.

We’ll give the voters credit for answering the question posed by City Manager Ron Strand to the water district’s board of directors during a town hall meeting held just 2 weeks prior to the election. “What if you’re wrong?” Strand pleaded, while laying out the case for construction of a $300 million pipeline designed to import water priced at record highs from the drought ridden San Joaquin Valley through the State’s corrupt water futures market. The economic well-being of Ridgecrest and the future of the Indian Wells Valley depend on a feasible GSP, not with an infeasible and unneeded pipeline from California City.

Strand and the City Attorney, Keith Lemieux, have been the common threads throughout the water crisis which began in 2014 with the passage of SGMA. We’ll give them credit for pulling the City through crisis after crisis although they’re both very wrong on SGMA, federal reserve water rights and holding fast to the GA’s old estimates. Thanks to the Indian Wells Valley Water District and the Technical Working Group, we now have a up-to-date scientific study that can be used in court and can be shared with the public:

• A Technical Working Group (TWG) composed of qualified groundwater professionals designated by parties representing more than 80 percent of the total groundwater production from the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin (Basin) was formed to assess groundwater storage in the Basin and evaluate other related technical questions. This paper was the subject of collaboration between these professionals applying scientific methods to estimate the total amount of groundwater and usable groundwater in storage in the Basin.
• Download a PDF of the Study here: https://www.iwvwd.com/files/ac61a221c/Assessment+of+Groundwater+Storage+for+the+Indian+Wells+Valley+Groundwater+Basin.pdf

The City of Ridgecrest would make a great study for a post-grad political science class. Ridgecrest is an extension of “The Grand Experiment”, but few people know that facet of China Lake’s history. It’s an experiment that never ended, about a town that was created out of a place called  “Crumsville”. 80 years later, history repeats and China Lake has been re-born because of the earthquakes, a “blessing in disguise” as Bruen called them.

An 80-year cycle is coming to an end and another war is on the horizon. It’s always a war that’s part of a Fourth Turning. America’s never-ending wars and budget deficits are bankrupting the nation while the immigrant invasion is crowding out schools and hospitals and bringing more crime and Fentanyl to every small town in America.

Ridgecrest is a “Company Town” and we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Ridgecrest is also a “Money Pit” in the words of The Daily Independent’s publisher John Watkins, which is now exacerbated by a 9.25% Sales Tax.

Ridgecrest is also a “militarized police surveillance city” with 26 new License Plate Readers, a brand new 684K armored Bearcat and, of course, Placer.AI, a scummy creepy data broker based in Israel. The City of Ridgecrest is getting creepier and residents should remind themselves of what they endured under Covid before accepting this abuse of police power.

We still have unresolved questions regarding our favorite story of the “Man Camps”, which quickly became a local conspiracy theorists’ clickbait and part of China Lake’s folklore, and 5 years later we still want to know: What will happen to the Man Camps when the construction is complete?

We could tell you much, much more about Placer.AI and License Plate Readers and we’ll warn you that Bruen is already looking forward to the 2026 “election season” and has a hashtag #BBB which means “Bring Back Bruen”. We’ll use “Big Bulbous Butthead” or “Big Brother Butthead” instead.

That’s enough beating a dead horse for now. Congratulations to Travis W. Endicott and Happy New Year to Ridgecrest and China Lake, as well as Trona, Inyokern, Randsburg and even Bakersfield!

May the Force be with you!

“One of the things that I continue to teach my students, there is a lot more that unites us than what divides us, and what we need to do is work on finding those things that unite us to work together. We are a community and each one of us is just as important as any other.” – Travis Endicott at the Mayoral Candidates forum, October 1, 2024.

P.S. As for former Mayor Bruen, kindly “stick it where the sun don’t shine”.